Leadership and Organisational Behavior - Essay Example

BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS Leadership is the ability to get employees to follow you voluntarily, it is the ability to affect human behaviour in such a way that it helps in accomplishing a mission. An individual can possess this quality and categorize this as actual or potential. Actual leadership is giving advice, direction or guidance to the employees while potential is having the capacity to lead. Leaders have both formal and informal characteristics. They can lead employees while also be of significance in a circle of friends. According to Mitch McCrimmon (2006), "leadership is not a role or position, but a free-floating act. In a meeting, it can shift from one person to another. This leadership is not about taking turns running the meeting. It is rather about promoting a better way of doing things or a new product." Many studies have shown that good leaders tend to have certain qualities such as: they have technical and specific skill of some task, have a clear sense of purpose, they are optimistic, work well with others, and believe that they can make a difference, can nurture the people around them i.e. delegate tasks, aware of the environment and themselves, are empathetic, direct all actions towards the goals and the mission and are role models for others. There are many theories on which leadership style should be adopted, but each leadership style or approach used depends on the culture of the organisation and the task at hand. As all things, these approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, and in some situations it is better to use a particular type of approach over another. Leadership has been broadly categorized into classical approaches, behavioural approaches, trait approaches, transformational approaches and contingency approaches. Each approach has many theories within it. The classical approach contains the autocratic style, bureaucratic style, democratic style and the Laissez-faire. The autocratic style is the one in which the leader or manager retains control and power of decision making. Studies have shown that an autocratic leadership style leads to high absenteeism and labour turnover. There is low employee morale and the employees become dependent on the manager for decision making. Bureaucratic is when the manager goes by the book, follows procedure and policy, and if something is not in the book than he refers to his senior. This type of leadership style can be used when the job is routine, or when working with dangerous equipment and hazardous chemicals. It should not be used when employees start to lose interest in their job and do only what is expected of them and no more. A democratic style encourages participation, sharing of information and problem solving responsibilities. It is a way of coaching the employees to reach their full potential, although the final say lies with the coach. It is appropriate to use this style when the employee is skilled and the leader wants to provide the employees with opportunities, encourage team work, the task is very complex and requires input form all employees or when an organisational change needs to be made. It is not effective when there is a lack of time, it costs more to get everybody's input, the business in not in a condition to make mistakes, employee safety is vital and the manager feels insecure about delegating. Laissez-faire style is a do it yourself style. The leader provides no guidance. This is effective when the employees are highly skilled and know what they are doing. They are trustworthy and have experience in the field, and are experts. An example of this can be engineers and scientists working in the research and development department. They know what they want and how they want the end result to look like. It should not be used when the manager himself is unclear about his responsibilities and wants the employees to do his work, when the manager can not provide feedback; managers are unable to thank their employees and when the employees need the presence of the manager to guide them. Each of these styles can be adopted in different situations depending on three factors: the manager or leader, the employees and the organisation. The money-zine website defines behavioural leadership as the study of actions that defines a leadership style. The behavioural approach developed in the 1950's; there are two famous studies that took place in this context, the Ohio State University and the University of Michigan studies. The Ohio State University study made use of the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire, the result they found out was that there are two distinct characteristics of leaders, consideration and initiating structure. Consideration is related to concern for employees and showing support while initiating structure is related to the task and the performance of the subordinate. The University of Michigan came up with a similar version of this, they defined leaders on two levels: production oriented and employee oriented. The University of Texas came with the grid and defines five types of leadership styles across two factors; concern for people and concern for production. These are: impoverished management, authority compliance, country club management, team management and middle of the road management. The CEO of M/A-Com Rick Hess is characterised as a leader who has a high concern for people and a moderate concern for production. This approach concentrated on the behaviour that leaders possessed so that a general assumption can be made about the qualities that a leaders needs to possess, but the results showed that it depended on the situation and no one method is correct. The disadvantage of this approach is that it focuses on only two factors the task or the people, not on the organisational goals or the overall mission of the company. Today employees and leaders not only need to do their job but also help the organisation move forward and achieve these goals. On the other hand, this approach made the leaders at that time realise that employees need to be considered when taking a decision and that the employees when treated the right way will increase productivity. According to the Encyclopaedia of Management, "the contingency or situational theories of leadership propose that the organizational or work group context affects the extent to which given leader traits and behaviours will be effective." This approach became prominent in the 1960's and the 70's. Four theories were developed under this approach, the path-goal theory, Fielder's contingency theory, situational leadership theory and the Vroom-Yetton-Jago decision making model. Fielder was the first to talk about the relationship that existed between the situational factors and leader traits and the influence of behaviour on leadership effectiveness. The favourability factors such as respect and trust, the control the leader has over subordinates and the extent to which performance can be measured determines the effectiveness of the task oriented or the people oriented leader. This theory said that leaders were effective when the situation matched their styles and that leaders could not necessarily change their styles to match the organisation. This is a very important factor when hiring managers today. Companies make sure that the employee's personality matches the culture of the organisation; otherwise he is not productive and will eventually quit the job. The path goal theory by Robert House says that the characteristics of the work environment and the subordinate will determine which leadership style is more appropriate. Factors of employee are locus of control, ability, need for affiliation and work experience while work environment factors are nature of the job, the formal hierarchical system and the nature of the work group. The leader in this case should be helpful in attaining goals for the subordinates, provide coaching so that the path will lead to the goal and make sure better performance is rewarded. Four types of leader behaviour have been described: directive leadership, supportive leadership, participative leadership, and achievement-oriented leadership. The path goal theory does not link all the factors together and there is not much research to support this theory. Also, the model is complex and is not easily understandable. Employees tend to get confused as to which path will lead to their desired outcomes. The situational leadership theory, revised by Hersey and Blanchard, links the leader's behavioural style with the task readiness of subordinates. Leadership behaviour is categorised in two classes, task-oriented and relationship-oriented. The effectiveness of these two classes depends upon the level of the subordinates. There are four types of leader behaviour and there are four types of follower readiness according to this theory. This theory links subordinate's ability to the leadership style but there on theoretical and methodological grounds there are criticisms for it. There have been many new developments in these approaches. One of these approaches is the leader-member exchange theory. There should be a strong relationship between the leader and the subordinate and this relationship should be fruitful for the organisation. According to this theory not all subordinates can develop such a relationship with the leader and those that do are trusted and have mutual respect. Empirical research by Steers et al (1996) mentioned in the Encyclopaedia of Management supports this relationship. There are the transformational leadership theories, in this the leader has a special ability to bring about change and innovate. They can take an organisation through a change in culture or goals. They help in revitalisation of the company. They focus on intangible qualities; they do not focus on procedures and policies or the financial benefits available. A transactional leader on the other hand, focuses on the task and provides rewards in accordance to the performance of the employees. They follow the rules and regulations, policies and procedures to the book. Charismatic leaders motivate employees and try and make them exceed their full potential. They are thought of as heroes, they inspire trust and faith. This leadership is useful in difficult times, when the organisation needs to go through a change. Charismatic leadership leads to high levels of obedience and is effective. The level of obedience if very high can be a negative factor as employees will never point out the mistakes in any decision. There is a tendency to narcissism; a charismatic leader can loose the face of reality which in today's world can lead to negative consequences for the company and the leader himself. Charismatic leaders are unpredictable and have lack of accountability which can lead to the creation of cults. In the end, there are servant leaders. These leader want to achieve the organisational goals but at the same time want to please the employees. It focuses on the bottom up approach. Such leaders operate on two levels: the need fulfilment of the employee and the larger purpose or mission of the company. Wal-Mart adopted this approach; this type of leadership is best suited in learning organisations. Works Cited 1. Daft, Richard L (1996). Management Fourth Edition. pages 494-517. 1996 2. Depree, M. (2004). Leadership Is an Art. Doubleday Business. 3. Glanz, J. (2002). Finding Your Leadership Style: A Guide for Educators. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development 4. Maxwell, J. C. (2007). The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You. Thomas Nelson; 10 New Edition. 5. McCrimmon, M. (2006). Burn! Leadership Myths in Flames. Self Renewal Group. Read More