Leadership Approach of Habermas - Essay Example

Leadership Approach of Habermas Introduction There are all together eight leadership theories that comprise of all the factors that are helpful in making a good leader. The leadership approach gained interest in the earlier years of twentieth century and then it became more categorized and systematic. Earlier, the leadership theories had their focus on the qualities which showed the difference between a leader and a follower but gradually with the passage of time the focus shifted to the variable factors like the situations, skill level, etc. The eight major theories of leadership which are presently in practice are discussed below. The main subject matter of the Great Man theory is that the leaders have inherent qualities of leadership from their birth and those qualities can not be injected in any ordinary person. The term ‘Great Man’ is used because at that time it was mainly referred to the male military leaders and it portrayed them as mythical heroes. The trait theory of leadership have few similarities with the previously discussed Great Man theories, it emphasizes on certain qualities that a leader possess. Those qualities are the factors that make a good leader and they are identified from the behaviour and personalities of great leaders. The theory had limitations in explaining the fact what if any ordinary person possesses those qualities but he is not a leader. The contingency theory of leadership has its focus on the specific environmental variables which determines the leadership style according to the circumstances. The theory emphasizes that there is no particular style of leadership which can suit in every situations so; the leaders have to be flexible in their style to tackle various situations. The situational theories of leadership emphasize on the choice of action by the leaders which best suits the present situation. The situational leadership theory also illustrates the fact that different leadership styles can be more appropriate in case of some specific decision makings. The behavioral leadership theory is just the inverse of the Great Man theories which believes that there is no such process by which great leaders can be made. This theory focuses on the activities of the leader rather than the mental qualities and says that by the process of learning and observation any ordinary person can become a great leader. Participative theory of leadership emphasizes on the participation of the group members in the activities performed under the leadership of a leader. The leader should encourage his group members in the decision making process to enhance their contribution for the same. Management theory is also known as the transactional theory and it focuses on the managerial abilities of a leader like supervision, organization, etc. This theory is based on the rewards and punishments, which a leader can give to his followers owing to their work performances. Relationship theory is also known as the transformational theory and it focuses on the connection of a leader with his followers. These types of leaders have high ethical standards and inspire the group members by helping them to reach the goal. (Wagner, n.d) Transformational Leadership The process of transformational leadership comprises of the actions, which are taken by the leader in order to increase the awareness of the group members about the rights and wrongs. These actions are taken by the transformational leaders from the stand point of morals and ethics. These are done by the leaders to motivate the group members so that they can understand the work and can over perform that for the betterment of the group. The leader motivates the group members to go beyond the achievement of simple rewards and provides a purpose to over achieve the target. The transformational leaders are quite practical and unique about their approach and focuses on the optimization of development rather than just performance of the group members. Such leaders give more stress on the maturity development of the group members and not just the level of performance. They motivate their group members to reach higher level of performance with equal level of ethical standards. They led their focus on the maturity and developments of the group members in order to develop the performance of the organization. The main characteristics of transformational leadership comprise of the ethical standards that had to be maintained during the performance and the workers should maintain the moral values to achieve the targets. The transformational leadership also transcends the daily affairs and is focused on the long term gains rather than short term benefits with respect to the ethical standards. The focus of this type of leadership is more on the mission and strategies adopted in doing the work and identifying the exact potential and talent of every group member. After the identification of talent of each group member, the transformational leaders help them to develop their talent and redesign the work according to talents of the group members. They also align the internal structures so that the systems can be reinforced to work according to the morals and ethical values of the organization in the completion of the work. Hence, the major characteristics of the transformational leadership theory are subjected to the development of the performance of the group members with respect to the incorporation of the ethical standards of the organization into the group members. The work under the transformational leadership is subjected to the behavioral characteristics of the leader. The leader follows an idealized behavior, which helps him to convey the values and purpose of the company to the group members who can then incorporate those values in the work culture. The leaders also possess an inspirational behavior which helps the group to have an optimistic visualization of the result of work in the future and that motivates the group members to work harder. The leader also possesses the ability of intellectual stimulation which helps him to stimulate his group members by re-examining the various perspectives of the work from different view points of each group member. This also helps him to train and develop the talents of each individual and gain the much needed respect from the group members. All these behavioral qualities make a good transformational leader who is always respected by his followers. (Bass and Riggio, 2006; p.47; Hacker and Robert, 2003; p.75) Four Factors of transformational leadership There are four major factors which comprise the theories of transformational leadership namely, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. These factors mainly determine the behavioral styles of transformational leaders while leading a group to get the work done. Idealized influence The leaders, following the transformational leadership theories with their idealized mindset influences their group members or the followers by talking about the important values of the organization. The leaders also try to incorporate a sense of purpose among the group members in order to influence them to work better. The leaders also had to judge the ethical consequences before making any specific decision along with the preaching of morals to their group members. The idealized influences in transformational leadership also showcase the exciting new possibilities for the group members as the consequence of their success at work. The leaders also lead emphasize on the trust factor between the team members for the proper implementation and the success of the work. The leaders try to make the group members feel proud to be associated with the organization and working with that. This sense of pride makes an individual to go beyond his self-interest and work as a team to reach the desired goal. The idealized influence also incorporates a competitive atmosphere in the group and every individual in the group acquires a sense of personal sacrifices for the benefit of the group and other group members. The idealized influences on the group members by the transformational leaders also injects the belief that every obstacle will be overcome that come in their way of success, if they stay united as a group and follow the ethical standards of the organization. Inspirational motivation The next factor that focuses on the transformational leadership abilities is the factor of inspirational motivation. To motivate and inspire the group and the individual members, a transformational leader optimistically visualizes the future and relates that to the other group members. The leader also had to talk enthusiastically among the group about the needs which are to be accomplished in doing the respective work given to them by the organization. The leader should have clear perspective of the future vision and should have the ability to relate that vision to every individual within the group to motivate and inspire them. This step is very important from the leader’s point of view to extract good work performance from every individual group member within the group. For further motivation the transformational leader also built an atmosphere of confidence within the group which stress on the fact that no matter what happens the group will be able to overcome all hurdles and achieve the desired goal. The essential factors that are needed for the success of the work are also identified by the transformational leader and related to his group members for implementation in the on-going work. The leader also had to take a stand if there is any occurrence of controversial issue which hampers the work atmosphere within the group. The transformational leader has to have all these abilities to provide an inspirational motivation to all the group members associated with the work. Intellectual stimulation The transformational leader, as the head of the group also had to do some intellectual stimulation for the successful completion of the work given to his group by the respective organization. Firstly, he had to re-examine all the critical assumptions and see whether they are appropriate with the context of the work. The leaders also had to seek different view point of every individual group member for solving any problem and then determine the best solution for the problem. The leaders for this aspect had to make the other group members look at the problem from different angles and perspectives for the best decisive solution of the given problem. The transformational leaders also suggest new and innovative ways of visualizing problem in order to complete the given assignments. With the changing scenario, the transformational leaders also encourage the group members to visualize and solve a traditional problem with non-traditional ways of thinking. There are lots of traditional views and ideas which do not work at the present scenario. The transformational leaders in order of their intellectual stimulation encourage their group members to re-think on those ideas before implementing them on the work process for the successful completion of the work in the present socio-economic scenario. Individualized consideration The next factor that focuses on the transformational leadership abilities is the factor of individualized consideration. These factor leads emphasize on the ability of the transformational leader on the identification of the capabilities of every individual within the group in working on the given problem. It is the duty of the leader to teach and coach every individual within the group who has some inabilities in giving the desired performance of work. The leaders treat every group members as unique individuals and coach them to polish their talents. The leader considers every individual member of the group according to the needs, abilities and ambition and distinguishes them from others accordingly. The leader also has the responsibility to identify the strengths and weaknesses of every individual group member and work accordingly to develop their strengths and rectify their weaknesses. The leaders also possess the responsibility of clarifying the queries of every individual group member by attentively listening to their concerns and queries. The transformational leader owing to the factor of individualized consideration promotes self development within the group for the betterment of work performance in the future. (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano, and Dennison, 2003) Habermas’s Communicative action and leadership ideas The transformational leadership approach is considered as the most effective by many philosophers and among then Jurgen Habermas is one of the most well known name. Habermas, a contemporary philosopher given the idea of communicative actions which states that individuals have to cooperate, coordinate and have a common understanding of the action before they implement that action in pursuit of achieving the desired goal. There should be reasoned argument before implementing any action among the individuals within the framework. He had subdivided action into four parts namely, teleological action, normatively regulated action, dramaturgical action and communicative action. In the teleological action, an individual makes his decision based on the situational interpretation and the most effective choice of action. In the normatively regulated action, an individual chooses that action which is works under the norms and regulation followed by his social group. This type of action is based on the choice of group rather than the solo decision making. Dramaturgical action is generally taken by an individual who is neither single nor associated with any social group. Those individuals are generally linked with persons who are the representatives of any public group. Hence, it can be an expansion of the teleological action as addressed by Habermas. In case of communicative action, there are more than one individual who coordinate among themselves to determine the exact course of action and plan their action according to the need of the situation. (Habermas, 1987; p.162) Habermas in order to develop the idea of communicative action had spent a huge amount of time on the use of language as language is the main medium of communication. The communicative action mainly depends on the arguments and reasoning among two or more persons in deciding the course of action and if there is language barrier then such conversation and coordination will be impossible. The leadership ideas in this context show that the communication and coordination among the group is very essential for the successful completion of the given work. Habermas in order to discuss the communicative action also lead emphasize on the cooperation among the individual group members in performing a task. According to him, in communicative action the plan of action depends on the fruitful argumentation and reasoning on the subject matter of the work. Hence, the leader should provide the necessary atmosphere of fruitful argumentation in his group where each individual should be given full opportunity to express his view of thoughts on the subject matter. Habermas was particularly influenced by the transformational leadership theories and his communicative action clearly shows that the idea of action is related to transformational theories. The leadership ideas of transformational theories relate directly with the communicative action of Habermas because on both cases the future actions are determined according to the discussions within the group and among the group members. (Bolton, 2005; Szczelkun, 1999) Comparison of Habermas’s approach with Weber and Freud Max Weber pointed out that in case of the communicative theory of action; the theory provides the explanation of the social actions with the achievements of the practical goals by performing precise calculations. Analysis of Weber focuses on the disillusionment in the history of religion and the rationalism behind it. Weber pointed at the belief that thought and action should be governed by reason that is, the basis of any action should be reasoning. The theory of Weber was based on the factors of rationalism with respect to the reasons behind every action within the social framework. The difference between the approaches of Habermas and Weber is that Habermas led his focus on the language factor and how the actions are taken whereas, Weber pointed out the reason behind such actions. (Szczelkun, 1999; Chemers, 1997; p.79) Freud has emphasized his idea by explaining the human behaviour which helps to understand the leadership strategies which are very effective in this context and makes people accept and follow whatever the leader says. The transformational leadership helps to evaluate the performance of the leader with respect to the performances of the associates and the followers of the leader. According to Freud, the acceptability of a leader towards his followers or group members is based on the past experience of the individual members at an unconscious level. The past experience of every individual lead some effect on their current relationship with others. In case, any individual has gone through a trauma in his childhood with his parents will need some extra measure from the leader to get attached to him and accept him as a guardian. The theory of Freud is quite vast in its application and is applicable to some other leadership theories also along with the transformational approach. The theory of Freud illustrates a different aspect of leadership that is, the acceptability of a leader whereas, the theory of Habermas focused on the language factor and how the actions are taken in the group. Although both the theories are applicable to the transformational approach of leadership still they are separable from each other. (Messick and Kramer, 2005; pp. 99-100; Borch-Jacobsen and Porter, 1989; pp.146-148). Conclusion There are mainly eight leadership approaches that are being practiced but the most commonly praised leadership approach is the transformational approach. Many philosophers have argued on this aspect and many supportive theories were established to support their point of view. Habermas was one of the supporters of transformational leadership and he established his ideas of leadership with respect to the actions taken by a leader and his group in his theory of communicative action. From the critical perspective, the theory of Habermas was well established within the framework of transformational leadership and led emphasize on the language factor in course of communication. It also established the point of view of the transformational leader and his group in deciding the course of action according to the on going situations. References 1. Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A. and Dennison, P. (2003), A review of leadership theory and competency framework, University of Exeter. Available at: http://www.leadership-studies.com/documents/mgmt_standards.pdf (accessed on January 27, 2010) 2. Wagner, K.V. (n.d), Leadership Theories - 8 Major Leadership Theories, About.com. Available at: http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/p/leadtheories.htm (accessed on January 27, 2010) 3. Bolton, R. (2005), Habermas’s theory of Communicative action and the theory of social capital, Centre for environmental studies, Williams College. Available at: http://www.williams.edu/Economics/papers/Habermas.pdf (accessed on January 27, 2010) 4. Szczelkun, S. (1999), Summary of the theory of communicative action, Royal College of Art, London. Available at: http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/publsbm01.htm (accessed on January 27, 2010) 5. Messick, D.M and Kramer, R.M. (2005), The psychology of leadership: new perspectives and research, Routledge. (accessed on January 27, 2010) 6. Borch-Jacobsen, M and Porter, C. (1989), The Freudian Subject, Stanford University Press. (accessed on January 27, 2010) 7. Chemers, M.M. (1997), An integrative theory of leadership, Routledge. (accessed on January 27, 2010) 8. Habermas, J. (1987), The theory of communicative action, Volume 2, Harpercollins Publishers. (accessed on January 27, 2010) 9. Bass, B.M and Riggio, R.E. (2006), Transformational leadership, Routledge. (accessed on January 27, 2010) 10. Hacker, S and Robert, T. (2003), Transformational leadership: creating organizations of meaning, American Society for Qualit. (accessed on January 27, 2010) Read More