Organizational Behavior: Leadership as a Motivational Method - Essay Example

Today, leadership is the individual ability to lead from within the groups, to promote shared vision, to guide and coach, and to achieve trust and credibility through competence, visibility, and accessibility for the followers (Collins 144). Today, leadership is an essential component of organizational behavior, based on the premise that organizational behavior explores and applies knowledge about how individuals and groups act in organizations (George 11). To a large extent, organizational behavior and leadership create a reciprocal line, in which organizational behavior patterns predetermine the choice of each particular leadership style, while the latter, in its turn, influences greatly the behavioral choices individuals and groups make in organizations.

A good leader is one of the most effective motivational forces in organizations, and in organizational behavior, leaders carry the burden of motivation responsibility for everything that is taking place in their organizational environments. Employees recognize that receiving encouragement and appreciation from their leaders is the best driver of motivation for them (Miner 34). Simultaneously, for a leader to be a good motivator, he (she) must have a unique approach to each employee and be able to link organization objectives to individual needs of employees.

Leadership can serve the source of encouragement and appreciation, which employees will use to support their achievements and strivings. There are different styles in leadership. Charismatic leadership, participative and situational leadership, transformational, transactional, and the quiet leadership are all the examples of leadership styles. All leadership styles have their unique features and advantages/ implications, but more important are the ways leaders use to decide upon the best leadership style (Mumford & Scott 707).

Hellriegel and Slocum write that “the choice of the most appropriate leadership style depends on the