Leadership in the Media - Literature review Example

Name Assessment item 1b Leadership in the media - Part B Institution Table of Contents Introduction 3 Media articles from own posting 3 Media articles from others’ posting 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction Among the most dominant constructs that emotional intelligence continues to be linked with is that of leadership. Current literature on leadership has generated numerous theories that attempt to outline the attributes and traits that make up effective leaders (Batool, 2013). This idea points to the concept of trait leadership. Zaccaro (2007) views trait leadership as integrated sets of personal characteristics that reflect a variety of individual variations and promotes the consistent effectiveness of leader across in many organizational circumstances. This report examines the traits, motives and characteristics of leaders, and the nature and importance of leadership, as can be construed from 4 media articles. It also comments on the leadership issues demonstrated in the articles. Media articles from own posting 1. Link http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/03/16/00/27/second-damascus-suicide-bomb-attack-hits Clearly, the media article demonstrates the nature and importance of leadership. It shows that leadership is important as it facilitates positive change. It further demonstrates that a leader stimulates and inspires others to attain meaningful goals. According to Chaudhry and Javed (2012), leadership can be defined as the capacity to motivate confidence and support among individuals who seek to attain certain prescribed goals. The media article also shows the main roles of a leader that tend to explain the nature of leadership. Okinyi et al. (2015) view role to be an accepted set of tasks behaviours or processes that stem from a job. Within this context, the main leadership roles viewed to be relevant within the sphere of the article on Staffan de Mistura include figure head, spokesperson, and negotiator. As evident in the article, Staffan de Mistura, who is the UN special envoy for Syria has demonstrated these key roles of a leader by condemning the "terrorist attacks" in Damascus and claiming they are intended to derail sustained political talks. Clearly, Staffan de Mistura emerges as figurehead to the UN in Syria by representing its interest of peace when he criticises the forms of violence used by ISIS. He also acts as a spokesperson of the UN by keeping its stakeholders informed on the role of the UN in ensuring sustainable peace in Syria. For instance, he calls on ISIS to stop attacking civilians, which also demonstrates the stance that UN is taking in the conflict. Staffan de Mistura also emerges as a negotiator, as he appears to be negotiating with the Syrian government and the opposition on behalf of the UN and the helpless civilians. For instance, he is trying to negotiate with the Syrian government and the opposition to pursue a round of talks in the Geneva on March 23 to come up with long-term solutions to the conflict (RAW, 2017). Abbasi et al. (2011) considers listening to be a nature of leadership and even comments that leadership requires a leader to listen to others skilfully in order to understand and relate to their concerns. Abbasi et al. (2011) further opined that listening one of the most significant skills of a leader. In the article, Staffan de Mistura appears to be having empathic listening skills, as he shares the concerns of the Syrian civilians and as a result seeks to provide them with emotional support. This is the reason he prevails over the Syrian government and the opposition to come up with long-term solutions to the conflicts in the country. An additional crucial aspect of leadership is vision and commitment. Martin et al., (2014) describes vision as a capacity to see the larger picture regarding what people can achieve. I also feel that leaders should demonstrate a desire to achieve a bigger picture. Zaccaro (2007) considers the need to achieve as a significant motive for a successful leader. Staffan de Mistura has a vision of long-term peace in Syria, and shares this vision to the Syrian government, the opposition, and the civilians when he condemns the terrorist attacks yet rises above the situation to call on ISIS to call off the attacks. In the second media article, he also calls on the Syrian government and the opposition to engage in peace talks to realise the vision of long-term peace. 2. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei-gGvLWOZI The nature of leadership is also apparent in the second articles. These include listening, vision, empowerment, and relationship development. A leader should also have vision and commitment, by seeing a bigger picture and showing dedication to attain the picture. In the media article, Yeonmi Park narrates her story of life in North Korea and how she escaped from North Korea while searching for freedom in order to calls for action against those violating human rights. She shares the bigger picture of having a world that is free from violation of human rights. According to Zaccaro (2007), a visionary perspective demands that an emerging model of leadership should be conceived that is more concerned with ensuring collective responsibilities for a leader’s actions and activities than individual ones. A leader listens to others to understand, relate to their concerns and to respond to issues they raise. In the media article, Yeonmi Park is a clearly a good listeners as a leader, as she attempts to speak on behalf of people like her who have been subjection of violation of human rights. This is the reason she says that she had to speak on behalf of South Koreans who wish to tell the world about their experiences through human rights violations. Another critical aspect of leadership that explains the nature of leadership is empowerment. According to Zaccaro (2007), empowerment changes organizations from being power-over scenarios to attaining a status of power-with scenarios. By attaining a status of power-with scenarios, a leader manages to increase trust in the people or communities, as it limits tensions and permits members of a community to work collaboratively in order to attain shared objectives. This facilitates the formation of an interdependent relationship, which enables others to accomplish great goals considerably. Yeonmi Park shows this trait. By narrating the story of her ordeal in South Korea, she seeks to empower women who have gone through similar experiences of human rights violation, including rape, to rise above their trials. In the end, I feel that empowerment is essential in current organisational leadership scenarios where employees are more aware of their rights. Leaders should therefore rise above being cooperative, consultative, or democratic, and be more empowering by communicating the right vision ad showing commitment to achieving the vision. Media articles from others’ posting Link 1: http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2017/03/09/letter-curt-lang-is-the-leader-sycamore-needs/al49622/ In the media article, Jeff Keicher, who is an editor for Daily Chronicle, writes an editorial to convince voters of Sycamore to elect Dr. Curt Lang as the mayor. He highlights the leadership traits that Lang has, including being a good listener, selfless, and an awareness of what the people in his two want. He stresses that Lang is a good empathic listener who is always ready to listen and communicate effectively with others (Keicher, 2017). From the article, it becomes clear that when we combine leadership traits and attributes, it becomes more possible to predict leadership or how a leader is likely to behave, compared to when the single leadership traits are examined separately. Keicher has combined leadership traits and attributes and predicts that Lang will make an effective leader as a major. I also reason that the article’s assumptions originate from an idea that leadership attributes that predict leadership can be explained by the trait theory, which assumes that are born. Essentially, the article points to the concept of trait leadership, which is well explored in literature. The media article shows that traits do matter, particularly an ability to listen to others. I believe that this idea emanates from an attribute of the nature of leadership called relationship development’ Overall, relationship development is also a significant dimension of leadership that attempts to explain the nature of leadership. It is concerned with how a leader builds relationship with others provides service to others. Iles and Preece (2006) consider developing relationships with people, community members, and colleagues as a vital for effective leadership. In other words, effective leaders tend to nurture strong relationships with the people they have to lead and to ultimately generate greater organizational efficiency. Link 2: http://news.nd.edu/news/when-hiring-a-manager-look-to-the-team-new-study-advises/ The media article attempts to show that possessing only certain kinds of leadership traits does not warrant effectiveness of leadership. Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) argued that key leader traits assists a leader to acquire essential skills, create an organizational vision as well as devise an effective plan to attain the vision. I can establish from the media article that while effective leaders tend to be different from other individuals because of certain unique attributes of traits, such as drive, integrity, charisma, cognitive ability, flexibility, and creativity, they cannot have all the leadership traits. In which case, rather that only emphasise one or two of these traits, organisations should emphasise all the traits so that leaders without certain traits can develop the traits they miss. In other words, it disputes the trait theory of leadership, which considers leaders to be born. In the media article, a research is cited to inform organisations to stop emphasising certain leader attributes or traits at the expense of other contextual factors that have a potential to make or break a leader. The article emphasised a need for leaders to have effective listening skills. In fact, an example is provided of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer who failed to listen by acting aggressively and even prohibiting her staff from telecommuting. She also negotiated bad acquisitions just because she refused to listen keenly and responsively to the feedback provided by her managers and employees (Roddel, 2017). Conclusion As can be established, leaders should portray key traits such as the desire to lead, cognitive ability, knowledge of business, self-confidence, drive, and integrity. Clearly, the media articles demonstrate the nature and importance of leadership. They show that leadership is important as it facilitates positive change by stimulating and inspiring others to attain meaningful goals. The nature of leadership is also apparent in the articles. These include listening, vision, empowerment, and relationship development. A leader should also have vision and commitment, by seeing a bigger picture and showing dedication to attain the picture. It also becomes clear that when leadership traits and attributes are combined, it becomes more possible to predict leadership or how a leader is likely to behave. However, people cannot have all the leadership traits. Therefore, leaders should seek to develop the traits that they lack in order to be more effective. References Martin, J., McComarck, B., Fitz, D. & Spring, R. (2014). The importance of inspiring a shared vision. International Practice Development Journal 4 (2), 1-15. Iles, P. and Preece, D. (2006). Developing leaders or developing leadership? The academy of chief executives' programmes in the North East of England. Leadership, 2 (3), 317-340. Okinyi, N., Kwaba, J. & Nyabuto, N. (2015). The role of leaders in transforming learners and learning in the higher learning institutions in Kenya. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(25), 105-116. Zaccaro, S. (2007). Trait-based perspectives of leadership. American Psychologist, 62(1), 6-16. Kirkpatrick, S. & Locke, E. (1991). Leadership: do traits matter? Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), 48-60. Chaudhry, A. & Javed, H. (2012). Impact of transactional and laissez faire leadership style on motivation. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(7), 258-264 Abbasi, M., Siddiq, A. & Azim, R. (2011). Role of effective communications for enhancing leadership and entrepreneurial skills in university students. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(10), 242-250. Batool, B. (2013). Emotional intelligence and effective leadership. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 4(3), 1-12. Roddel, S. (3 Mar 2017). When hiring a manager, look to the team, new study advises. Notre Dame News. retrieved from http://news.nd.edu/news/when-hiring-a-manager-look-to-the-team-new-study-advises/ Keicher, J. (Mar 14 2017). Letter: Curt Lang is the leader Sycamore needs. Daily Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2017/03/09/letter-curt-lang-is-the-leader-sycamore-needs/al49622/ RAW. (16 Mar 2017). Syria bombers aimed to ruin peace talks: UN. Retrieved from 9News' website: Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/03/16/00/27/second-damascus-suicide-bomb-attack-hits#wu5yhP0lTLA7Woa3.99. Read More