Leadership Philosophy - Literature review Example

Leadership Philosophy Name Institution Abstract While leadership philosophy is changeable in the long run, it is comparatively constant in the short-term. Leadership styles can be described by their philosophies anchored within the leader's assumptions or beliefs about the people, organisational performance, and their roles as leaders. Hence, four basic leadership styles exist: an autocratic leader, human relations leader, laissez faire leader and lastly, democratic leaders. Developing leadership philosophies within cultural contexts needs to take consideration of philosophical assumptions and frameworks of reference that underpin such cultures. Additionally, leadership philosophies can be interpreted based on the relationship between the leader and subordinates. Based on moral theory of recognition, leaders should have reciprocal understanding, trust, integrity, and mutual enabling. Additionally, they should have courage, symbolism, participation, and be willing to sacrifice their time. Outline Leadership philosophy refers to the underlying principles, rationale, and causes that trigger an individual to act in a certain manner as a leader. A principal argument that guides this paper is that while philosophy is changeable in the long run, it is comparatively constant in the short-term. Leadership styles can be described by their philosophies anchored within the leader's assumptions or beliefs about the people, organisational performance, and their roles as leaders (Warrick, 1981). In this respect, four basic leadership styles exists: an autocratic leader (who places emphasis on performance rather than people development), Human relations leader (who places low emphasis on performance and high emphasis on people), Laissez Faire Leader (who places low emphasis on both people and performance), and lastly, Democratic Leaders (who places high emphasis on both performance and people) (Warrick, 1981). As stated by Alves et al (2005), developing leadership theories in some cultures needs to take consideration of philosophical assumptions and frameworks of reference that underpin such cultures. For instance, leadership in China takes account of socio-cultural assumptions based on Chinese philosophy, hence Chinese frames reference have to be understood to perceive their leadership philosophies. Hence, leadership philosophies can also be interpreted based on the relationship between the leader and subordinates (Avolio & Gardner, 2005). Examples include authentic leadership, charismatic servant, transformational and spiritual leadership. For instance, authentic leadership focuses on the leader’s relationship with the subordinate since all kinds of leadership are relational by nature. Hence, the values of personal warmth and communication skills are significant. Authentic leadership can create significant difference in organizations by assisting individuals to find meaning. On the other hand, charismatic servant leader is a leader who views himself as a servant of the people, hence his promotion of the philosophy of servant leadership (Brubaker, 2013). Indeed, Pless and Maak (2004) propose moral theory of recognition and bring in the principle of reciprocal understanding, trust, integrity, and mutual enabling as the underlying philosophies for effective leadership that promotes cultural diversity. Consistent with this, Choi (2007) suggest that the virtues of courage, symbolism, participation, and sacrifice play a vital role in defining the cultural, social and political contexts of leadership. Turner and Muller (2005) views effective leaders to have four key virtues or beliefs: love, piety, proper conduct and the doctrine of the mean. To conclude, Leadership philosophy guides individual’s actions, behaviours, and thoughts. On the other hand, people’s philosophies are influenced by external and internal forces. People can change who they are by virtue of being leaders and by changing their leadership philosophy. Similarly, leadership philosophies can transform in the process of human growth to understand themselves as they take to their responsibility of leading.
To develop leadership philosophy, individuals have to reflect on their personal attitudes, perceptions and assumptions regarding leadership. Annotated Bibliography Alves, J., Manz, C. & Butterfield, A. (2005). Developing Leadership Theory in Asia: The Role of Chinese Philosophy. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(1), 3-27 The article argues that developing leadership theories in some cultures needs to take consideration of philosophical assumptions and frameworks of reference that underpin such cultures. The article reviews Chinese leadership philosophies that take account of Chinese philosophies. The article has theoretical implications. It promotes the idea that leadership in China takes account of socio-cultural assumptions based on Chinese philosophy, hence Chinese frames reference have to be understood to perceive their leadership philosophies. The article concludes that Chinese managers can articulate their leadership views and assumptions much better through Chinese concepts. Avolio, B. & Gardner, W. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 16, 315 – 338 The article explores organisational and environmental forces that potentially trigger the authentic leadership and personal leadership development. An overview of diverse theoretical and procedural perspectives presented concern different leadership philosophies that support charismatic or authentic leadership. The article points to the concept of authenticity as involving the quality of an individual being true to himself rather than to other people. Hence, authentic leadership focuses on the leader’s relationship with the subordinate since all kinds of leadership are relational by nature. Hence, the values of personal warmth and communication skills are significant. The article concludes that authentic leadership can create significant difference in organizations by assisting individuals to find meaning. Detailed description of charismatic servant, transformational and spiritual leadership is also presented. Black, G. (2010). Correlational Analysis of Servant Leadership and School Climate. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, 13(4), 437–466 The articles explores the level in which servant leadership relates to the perceptions of school environment, in order to show whether there is a correlation between the school principals and teachers' perception of the practice in servant leadership philosophy within the school setting. The author views a leader as an individual who views himself as a servant of the people, hence his promotion of the philosophy of servant leadership. The study concludes that a positive correlation exists between school climate and servant leadership and that servant leadership positively correlates to leadership effectiveness. Brubaker, T. (2013). Servant Leadership, Ubuntu, and Leader Effectiveness in Rwanda. Emerging Leadership Journeys, 6(1), 95-131 The article explores the correlation between behaviour of leaders and the perceived effectiveness of leadership. The study was conducted in Rwanda to examine the African leadership philosophy of Ubuntu in relation to the perceived leadership effectiveness. The study used non-probability convenience sample to study employees of non-governmental organisations. The findings establish that servant leadership positively correlates to leadership effectiveness. The researcher concluded that Ubuntu-related leadership positively correlated to leadership effectiveness. Choi, S. (2007). Democratic Leadership: The Lessons of Exemplary Models for Democratic Governance. International Journal of Leadership Studies 2(3), 243-262 The article argues that personal leadership philosophy plays a critical role in shaping democratic movements. The author proposes a model for democratic leadership that integrates motivation, context, characteristics, and outcomes of democratic leadership. The author suggests that the virtues of citizen participation, courage, symbolism, and sacrifice play a vital role in defining the cultural, social and political contexts of leadership. The author observes that democratic leaders are considered as good leaders as they consistently show strong commitment to certain personal values. Groves, K. (2006). Integrating leadership development and succession planning best practices. Journal of Management Development 26(3), 239-260 The article explores whether organisations can fail once they fail to apply leadership philosophies to manage employees effectively. The article presents best practices theories for maximal development of personal leadership philosophies. To meet the research objectives, 30 chief executive officers from 15 companies were surveyed through semi-structured interviews. Findings suggests that best practice organizations tend to efficiently integrate leadership development through the use of managerial personnel in promoting the organization’s mentor network, identifying and codifying high potential employees. Klenke, K. (2007). Authentic Leadership: A Self, Leader, and Spiritual Identity Perspective. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 3(1), 68-97 The author introduces the theory of authentic leadership, which is premised on the explanatory concept of identity that identifies three interconnected systems: spiritual-identity system, leader-identity system, and self-identity system. The three make up several sub-identities that comprise affective, cognitive, and conative aspects. The author suggests construct definition of authentic leadership, which is defined within the theoretical perspective derived from social identity and existential philosophy, in addition to a range of other theories, such as spiritual leadership theory and leader proto-typicality. The study concludes that authentic leadership is a vital and stimulating concept that forms multi-paradigmatic theoretical and empirical research. Pless, N. & Maak, T. (2004). Building an Inclusive Diversity Culture: Principles, Processes and Practice. Journal of Business Ethics 54, 129–147 The article makes claims that many organisations are not able to meet their diversity objectives due to unsupportive leadership. It further posits that the problem of creating an inclusive diversity culture shows that culture inclusion has to be based on concrete moral grounds. Hence, it proposes moral theory of recognition and brings in the principle of reciprocal understanding, trust, integrity and mutual enabling as the underlying philosophies for effective leadership that promotes cultural diversity. Turner, R, & Muller, R. (2005). The Project Manager’s Leadership Style As A Success Factor On Projects: A Literature Review. Project Management Journal, 36(1), 49-61 The article examines the general statements made by leadership literature to describe specific instances when leaders can be considered as being effective, or when leadership styles can be regarded as being appropriate. The author surveys literature by Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke and Confucius to conclude that effective leaders are viewed to have four key virtues or beliefs: love, piety, proper conduct and the doctrine of the mean. The author further integrates the theory of cognitive functions (which defines the role of a leader as directing, guiding and taking actions) and Cathetic functions theory (which views the motivational and emotional elements of what makes a leaders). The author concludes that leaders should be people-focused. Warrick, D. (1981). Leadership Styles and Their Consequences. Journal of Experiential Learning and Simulation 3-4: 155-172 The author explores leadership style theories. It further integrates the theories into illustrating the archetypical features, philosophy, and implications related to each leadership styles. The author argues that leadership styles are typically described by their philosophies, based on the leader's assumptions or beliefs about the people, organisational performance, and their roles as leaders. He then suggests four basic leadership styles based on specific underlying philosophies: autocratic leader, who places emphasis on performance rather than people development, Human relations leader, who places low emphasis on performance and high emphasis on people, Laissez Faire Leader, who places low emphasis on both people and performance, and lastly, Democratic Leaders, who places high emphasis on both performance and people. Reference Alves, J., Manz, C. & Butterfield, A. (2005). Developing Leadership Theory in Asia: The Role of Chinese Philosophy. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(1), 3-27 Avolio, B. & Gardner, W. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 16, 315 – 338 Black, G. (2010). Correlational Analysis of Servant Leadership and School Climate. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, 13(4), 437–466 Brubaker, T. (2013). Servant Leadership, Ubuntu, and Leader Effectiveness in Rwanda. Emerging Leadership Journeys, 6(1), 95-131 Choi, S. (2007). Democratic Leadership: The Lessons of Exemplary Models for Democratic Governance. International Journal of Leadership Studies 2(3), 243-262 Groves, K. (2006). Integrating leadership development and succession planning best practices. Journal of Management Development 26(3), 239-260 Klenke, K. (2007). Authentic Leadership: A Self, Leader, and Spiritual Identity Perspective. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 3(1), 68-97 Pless, N. & Maak, T. (2004). Building an Inclusive Diversity Culture: Principles, Processes and Practice. Journal of Business Ethics 54, 129–147 Turner, R, & Muller, R. (2005). The Project Manager’s Leadership Style As A Success Factor On Projects: A Literature Review. Project Management Journal, 36(1), 49-61 Warrick, D. (1981). Leadership Styles and Their Consequences. Journal of Experiential Learning and Simulation 3-4: 155-172 Read More

As stated by Alves et al (2005), developing leadership theories in some cultures needs to take consideration of philosophical assumptions and frameworks of reference that underpin such cultures. For instance, leadership in China takes account of socio-cultural assumptions based on Chinese philosophy, hence Chinese frames reference have to be understood to perceive their leadership philosophies. Hence, leadership philosophies can also be interpreted based on the relationship between the leader and subordinates (Avolio & Gardner, 2005).

Examples include authentic leadership, charismatic servant, transformational and spiritual leadership. For instance, authentic leadership focuses on the leader’s relationship with the subordinate since all kinds of leadership are relational by nature. Hence, the values of personal warmth and communication skills are significant. Authentic leadership can create significant difference in organizations by assisting individuals to find meaning. On the other hand, charismatic servant leader is a leader who views himself as a servant of the people, hence his promotion of the philosophy of servant leadership (Brubaker, 2013).

Indeed, Pless and Maak (2004) propose moral theory of recognition and bring in the principle of reciprocal understanding, trust, integrity, and mutual enabling as the underlying philosophies for effective leadership that promotes cultural diversity. Consistent with this, Choi (2007) suggest that the virtues of courage, symbolism, participation, and sacrifice play a vital role in defining the cultural, social and political contexts of leadership. Turner and Muller (2005) views effective leaders to have four key virtues or beliefs: love, piety, proper conduct and the doctrine of the mean.

To conclude, Leadership philosophy guides individual’s actions, behaviours, and thoughts. On the other hand, people’s philosophies are influenced by external and internal forces. People can change who they are by virtue of being leaders and by changing their leadership philosophy. Similarly, leadership philosophies can transform in the process of human growth to understand themselves as they take to their responsibility of leading.
To develop leadership philosophy, individuals have to reflect on their personal attitudes, perceptions and assumptions regarding leadership.

Annotated Bibliography Alves, J., Manz, C. & Butterfield, A. (2005). Developing Leadership Theory in Asia: The Role of Chinese Philosophy. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(1), 3-27 The article argues that developing leadership theories in some cultures needs to take consideration of philosophical assumptions and frameworks of reference that underpin such cultures. The article reviews Chinese leadership philosophies that take account of Chinese philosophies. The article has theoretical implications.

It promotes the idea that leadership in China takes account of socio-cultural assumptions based on Chinese philosophy, hence Chinese frames reference have to be understood to perceive their leadership philosophies. The article concludes that Chinese managers can articulate their leadership views and assumptions much better through Chinese concepts. Avolio, B. & Gardner, W. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 16, 315 – 338 The article explores organisational and environmental forces that potentially trigger the authentic leadership and personal leadership development.

An overview of diverse theoretical and procedural perspectives presented concern different leadership philosophies that support charismatic or authentic leadership. The article points to the concept of authenticity as involving the quality of an individual being true to himself rather than to other people. Hence, authentic leadership focuses on the leader’s relationship with the subordinate since all kinds of leadership are relational by nature. Hence, the values of personal warmth and communication skills are significant.

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