Leader Traits, Power, and Corruption - Essay Example

What happened at Enron as well as at WorldCom not only questioned the role of corporate governance and ethics within organizations but it also put on test the very qualities of the leadership because in all those episodes of corporate failures, leadership was the main culprit. Leaders in those organizations wielded powers entrusted to them in ways which may not be considered as ethical in any sense. Leadership is a very complex process and requires different approaches to deal with different situations as they arise.

One of the basic characteristics of leadership is the fact that it succeed in wielding power which others may find hard to exercise. The sources and means of various powers entrusted to leadership are various however what is critical is the facts that by exercising such powers leaders aim to achieve something which others cannot achieve. The gradual shift from bureaucracy to more flexible and so called radix organizations, the role of leadership has further become complicated and somewhat more fluid and demanding in nature.

(Schneider, 2002). Since leadership is often defined as the use of "noncoercive influence" in order to accomplish different tasks (Jago, 1982) therefore in fluid organizations with much emphasis on delegation, exercising powers is considered as a delicate art.This paper will present an analysis of the different powers leaders within organizations use as well as exploring how these powers can be exercised to avoid operational, administrative as well as ethical problems faced by the organizations.

Leadership Sources of PowerThere are different sources of powers which a leader can exercise within an organization to achieve the desired objectives and strategic aims. Since, leadership is a process where non-coercive influence is used therefore it is often assumed that while exercising such powers, leaders always do it in the best interest of the organization. Following are the different sources of power for leaders:Expert PowerThe source of this power is the expertise of the leader. If leader is expert in his or her field of business than the wielding of this power allow a leader to exercise certain degree of influence.

This power is therefore based on an individual leader's competence and expertise in certain areas of work i.e. Bill Gates being the CEO as well as Chief Software Architect of Microsoft.Legitimate PowerThe source of this power is individual's position within an organization. By having a certain position, status, leaders derive this power to achieve leader-follower behavior because others follow them due to their legitimate power within an organization.Reward PowerThe source of this power is the leader's ability to reward any behavior.

Due to this, most of the employees within an organization tend to follow their leaders and obey them because leaders exercise the power of rewarding them. This power is also one of the most important in the sense that it may allow collusion of employees/managers with the leaders to engage into unethical business practices.Coercive PowerSince leaders due to their position within the organization control both rewards as well as punishments therefore the source of coercive power is when the leader control the punishment i.e. he or she has the power and ability to fire, fine, punish etc any employee.

Coercive power