The Different Leadership Approaches and Theories - Essay Example

Introduction Leaders are the people who have the vision to put company in the right direction. Different have various views about leadership.Some say these qualities are inborn and granted as the gift of nature [e.g. Horner 1997 and Kotter 1998]. There are authors [e.g. Roberts 1994 and Sinetar 1981] that say leadership is something that could be taught and every one in the society can learn these abilities through development programs. Demonstration of great behavior makes a leader great. These behaviors can also be taught to people in leadership positions. Today's dynamic environment requires leaders to be flexible enough to drive change in the organization. The paper elaborates and critically discusses the different leadership approaches and theories. It critically analyzes the statement that "leaders are born not made" in the light of the views of different authors on various theories. Leaders are born and not made In the early twenty century, it was considered that the leaders are born and cannot be made. It was assumed that there must be three qualities in every leader and on the basis of these qualities the leaders can be judged. Personality, physicality and mentality were the elements that were found mandatory to be a leader. It was also thought that the organizations having an ability to recognize great leaders would touch the pinnacle of success (Horner 1997). According to this view, the leaders are born and these qualities cannot be developed. Without the natural capabilities and abilities no one could become a leader. These leadership qualities are the gift of nature that can be given to any one regardless of sex, nationality and origin. Horner suggests that a number of researches have been carried out to distinguish the qualities of a leader but so far no great output has been achieved. The author says that there may be several situational and environmental factors that add up to a leader's effectiveness (1997). According to a famous Michigan and Ohio State leadership study in the context of an organization, consideration and initiation as two most important factors. The same was proved with the research carried out at other several colleges and universities. In the presence of this research, it can be said that leadership qualities are not necessarily inborn but it can also be grown in the employees (Horner 1997). Leadership is something keenly related to the behaviors that can be taught to the employees. The employees are not necessarily born with leadership qualities but these are the qualities that can rise up in the employees. If the employees are motivated and trained in the manner there is no reason why the maximum output is not achieved and they will surely be proved themselves as the great prospective leaders. Some researchers have moved forward with their research to discover what leadership behaviours are and how the behaviours of leader can be distinguished from their subordinates. In the light of those behaviours the art of leadership could be taught. Such researches focus on both people oriented and task oriented actions of behaviour. (Horner 1997). This behaviour can be learned instead of considering that these are inborn factors. There are several leadership theories that elaborate leadership behaviours, traits and qualities. These theories explain the different aspect of leadership and qualities of a good leader or weather these can only be the inborn qualities or they can be taught as well. The first theory is the great man theory that says that the "leaders are born and not made". According to the theory, the great leadership abilities are inherited and can not be taught to any one. Further only the great man can lead and the subordinates are made to obey these great men (Roberts 1994). The great leaders show up when there is a great need of them. The main idea of the Great man theory was the recognition of the great people as natural born leaders. The theory further says that the history has been formed by great leaders. Mostly the people of this category belong to a noble or upper class families. There would hardly few people who are from poor families. This proves that hereditary qualities were considered to be playing a very important role in leadership. There is also a theory named subsequent theory. This theory also says that the great leaders have the distinguishing factors that make them superior or special from others. (Roberts, Sinetar 1994). The theory has the same remarks as the great man theory according to which the leaders have trait from their birth. The people born with these traits have the huge chances to become a leader. A good leader needs to demonstrate versatility and flexibility in his attitude, behaviour and action as per the situation and subordinate characteristics, according to contingency theory. Theories such as situational and contingency suggest that more important things in the study of leadership are the situation and circumstances in which a leader is to perform his responsibility. As far as contingency approach is concerned it says a group can work effectively if there is a balance between leadership style and the situation where a leader can use the influences (Roberts, 1994). These theories do not support the views of the Great man and subsequent theories as according to situational and contingency theories circumstances makes a leader great. It is so because if leaders continue to display their natural trait or quality (according to the trait theory of leadership), they would not be able to demonstrate their leadership skills in different situations. In today's dynamic world, it is very important that leaders are able to vary their leadership style with respect to the changing situations and subordinate characteristics. However, if the statement "leaders are born not made" holds good, the leaders would not be able to cope with this changing environment. This suggests that good leaders need to continuously develop in themselves those skills and qualities that are required to be demonstrated in a particular situation. Hence, leadership qualities consistently need to be developed over time. Leaders are the people who mould the behaviours of their employees into the attitudes that could best achieve the organizational goals and objectives. For this purpose, the leaders need to adapt themselves first with the changing situations and then prepare others for change. This suggests the importance of changing leadership behaviours and styles. Good leaders need to learn to develop their skills and adopt an attitude that will provide the best possible outcome. Despite this fact, there are still organisations who do not offer any developmental programmes for its employees at management positions to develop their leadership skills and abilities. The reason behind it is nothing but the unawareness of traits and skills of leaders. The functions a leader performs is not unambiguously understood or even classified by many organisations (Sinetar 1981). Leaders are people who learn from ever changing situations and circumstances. The leadership skills can be developed by organising different programs and adopting various teachings methods. Everyone living in this world with average brainpower can be a leader by putting required efforts. Sinetar also propounds that "leadership can be taught to and developed in persons of average and above average intelligence. Leadership is not a position one has by "divine right" of birth or personality." (1981, p194). It suggests that leadership can be learnt and organisations need to promote leadership abilities in employees at managerial positions. Leadership is a function of management and every manager needs to demonstrate leadership skills so as to best achieve the organizational goals in the ever changing internal and external environments. Leadership skills need to be developed in all managers in an organization through carefully designed leadership programs. Leadership is a sum of skills, knowledge, experience and intuitive understandings. There may be some situations where born abilities and individual personality can become helpful in solving the problems quickly while other take more time. (Sinetar 1981). Leadership is something that is comprised of many things i.e. skills, experience etc. The abilities that are given to an individual by nature may become more useful in certain occasions. This simply does not mean that only those individual having some natural abilities can perform as leaders. After having understood the point that leadership could be taught, several leadership training and development programmes have been launched by several institutes and universities to develop leadership abilities in the students. Educational courses like MBA have been started for the students that want to grow their careers as business managers. These programmes are very helpful in establishing the leadership qualities and behaviour and with the help of the training and related education they can become a great leaders. Sadler also says that "the assumption behind these programmes assumptions is the leadership can be taught; or at least that it is something that is capable of being developed." (2003 p2) A research conducted by Bennis and Nansus suggests some points that are commonly assumed as facts about leadership. They expound that this is a wrong concept that everyone can not become leader or very few people have these skills indeed great leaders are very few but every one has the potential to prove him as a leader. Every one can avail the leadership opportunities as it is reserved only to a particular group of people. The research has also rejected the concept that the leadership qualities are only found in the people who born with them. Every thing that is considered necessary for being a leader can be learnt and all human beings can learn it as well. According to the research, it also wrong to say that all leaders are charismatic; some of them may be but not all (Sadler 2003). This research provides very vivid about the leadership potentials. The leadership is an art and every one who has the potential to grow can be a leader. It can be learned by most of the people through different institutes of knowledge. Some of the leadership qualities are inborn. Some basic skills i.e. mental capability, social interaction skills, physical attributes and energy level are some of the factors that is found inevitable for the great leaders. This is somehow a supportive analysis for the theory that says "leader are born and not made." (Kotter 1998). According to this analysis, some of the initial inborn qualities that cannot be developed are necessary to be a good leader. As a person needs to be of the average or above average intelligence can become leaders but as for as the people with below average intelligence are concerned it has to say that would hardly be the good leaders. The minimum potentials are required to teach something further and these initial abilities are given at birth by the nature. Conclusion This paper critically discusses the leadership approaches and different view of various authors. There are approaches in favour and against the statement that "leader are born and not made." In this paper, these theories have been discussed in order to critically analyze this statement. Most of the authors do not agree with it and have clear opinions that all the leadership abilities are acquirable and every one has the potential to learn them. Every person that have the above average or average intelligence can be trained as leaders. The training can be done through organising various leadership developmental programmes. There is also an opposing view that says that only people born with leadership qualities can become a leader. Another approach supporting this view says that some of the leadership qualities can be learnt but as for as some basic qualities are concerned like health and interaction skills etc. are the factors that can not be taught. So the role of natural abilities to an extent cannot be ruled out. Hence, this paper proves that apart from the fact that some leaders have innate charismatic qualities, leadership capabilities can be learnt as well as acquired by individuals. If leaders are supposed to have specific innate qualities only, they would not fit well in today's dynamic and ever changing environment. References Horner, M. (1997). "Leadership Theory: Past, Present and Future." Team Performance Management, 3(4), pp. 270-287 Roberts, H. S. (1994). "Roberts' Dictionary of Industrial Relations" BNA Books, Edison, NJ Sinetar, M. (1981). "Developing Leadership Potential" Personnel Journal. 60(3), pp. 193-196 Sadler, P. (2003) "Leadership" Kogan Page, London Kotter, J.P. (1998) "The Leadership Factor", Free Press, New York, NY Read More